The present invention is directed toward a cleaning fluid dispenser and more particularly, toward such a dispenser that is primarily intended to be utilized at a kitchen sink for dispensing a quantity of dishwashing liquid. The dispenser is capable of dispensing the dishwashing liquid from the bottom or from the top thereof without turning the dispenser upside down.
It is common to have a plastic bottle of dishwashing liquid next to a sink for dispensing a quantity of the dishwashing liquid when it is desired to manually wash dishes or pots and pans in the sink. Conventionally, the liquid dishwashing soap is in a container having an opening at the top. The opening is closed by a cap or a valve or the like. When it is desired to dispense the soap, the cap is removed or the valve is opened and the container is inverted and squeezed until the desired amount of detergent is dispensed. This procedure normally requires the use of two hands.
There are also times when a person wants to wash his or her hands at the sink but, with both hands dirty, does not want to hold the bottle of soap to invert the same. There are also times when one hand may be occupied with holding a pot or pan and soap is needed and must be obtained using the other hand. Obviously, there are situations for various reasons where a person may have only one usable hand. Under all of these circumstances, conventional soap containers that must have the top opened and then inverted can be a problem.
To overcome these issues, soap dispensers have been developed wherein the soap can be dispensed from the top thereof without inverting the dispenser. The dispensers include an internal pump mechanism and an upper surface that, when pushed down, forces the liquid detergent upwardly onto the upper surface. The upper surface can be pushed downwardly with the person's hand directly on the surface. In that case, the soap will be directed right onto the hand. Alternatively, a sponge or scrubber or the like can be located on the upper surface and the liquid soap can be dispensed onto the sponge. The sponge can be part of the dispenser or can simply be held in a person's hand and be used to push the upper surface of the dispenser down.
Dispensers, such as those described above, are shown, for example, in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,726,517; 7,980,777; 2,593,591; 3,739,955; 4,757,922; 4,865,228 and D743,257. The contents of these prior patents are incorporated herein in their entireties.
While the above prior art patents help to alleviate the problem of providing soap to a person's hand without having to lift the container, they are somewhat limited. These devices are incapable of dispensing a quantity of liquid soap onto pots or pans or dishes or the like when this is desired. To applicant's knowledge, there is no dispenser available or proposed that is capable of dispensing soap onto a person's hand by pressing down on the top and is also capable of dispensing a quantity of soap onto pots or pans or dishes in a sink.
A need exists, therefore, for a liquid soap dispenser that is capable of dispensing soap directly onto a person's hand by pressing down on the top and is also capable of dispensing a quantity of soap onto pots or pans or dishes in a sink.